Garland officials and their private partners admitted Monday they couldn't have picked a better day for the official groundbreak of the $25 million second phase of the City Center downtown project. Though, truth be told, they took two shots at it.

Long before the ceremony was rained out a couple weeks ago, work to build 153 residential units and a parking garage north and east of City Hall was evident. Staff and residents who do business there have been parking along nearby streets for the last several months. And voting for both May and November elections was moved from City Hall to the Richland College campus on Walnut Street.

Phase II builds on the Oaks Fifth Street Crossing retail/residential development that opened in 2008 and will be Oaks' fourth project near a rail station. The parking structure will have about 330 spaces to serve the residential tenants and those accessing City Hall and the adjacent Performing Arts Center. Phase II is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2014.

The project also includes a "reskinning" of City Hall itself, a four-story structure whose top corporate resident, City Manager Bill Dollar, had joked to insiders as resembling a prison in its current form.

"We need to focus now on what it's going to look like," Dollar said. "We're very proud of that. This is a wonderful day for us. A city moving forward."